


Dart

by MrProphet



Category: Mark of the Ninja (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 13:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10698114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	Dart

They say that the Clan predates the Samurai; predates the era of swords as surely as it predates the gun and the laser. In the days before folded steel, when a blade longer than your forearm could not be depended upon to strike without snapping, we were there. We had no swords then, and no chains; no spike mines with their delicate spring settings. We had our skills, and our knives; our alchemy and our ropes of twisted silk; and we had our darts.

The bamboo dart is the simplest of our tools, yet also the most flexible. It will not cut as deep as a blade, but the wound it makes is raw and resists healing. If used correctly, it flies as swift and sure as an arrow. It is light enough to conceal in the folds of your robes, but heavy enough to shatter glass and strike a note from a gong. It can sting and goad your foes or carry toxins into their blood. It can patter on the stones and draw a careless foe to their doom, or plunge a room into darkness with one well-aimed throw. 

It is said that the ninja of old - before swords, before the Ink - could kill with their darts alone, piercing arteries and eyes to bring blindness and death from a distance. Others would use them up close, like a knife, or slide their splintering points into the body of a captive foe to wring the truth from them.

The dart is beyond weapon, beyond tool. They are disposable, but indispensable. It takes longer to master their use than to learn the ways of sword, chain and stealth combined, but in the end it is that mastery that is the true mark of the ninja.


End file.
